Genre
novella, science fiction
Setting and Context
post-apocalyptic future
Narrator and Point of View
Narrator: the protagonist confined to her house
Point of view: first person
Tone and Mood
Tone: confused
Mood: nightmarish
Protagonist and Antagonist
Protagonist: a female narrator confined to her home because of the decaying world; Antagonist: a menacing force called the "yawning" which destroys the world and kills people
Major Conflict
The world has been turned upside down by the appearance of the yawning-light fractions that kill people and destroy the world. The main protagonist is confined to her home fearing the outside world.
Climax
The protagonist has finally reached the point of no return. She had completely merged with the house, with no way to see the outside world through the surrounding windows.
Foreshadowing
"In the house my breath became a curtain. In the curtain there was fear."
-Foreshadowing of the slow decline into the house and the body becoming one, which was inspired by fear of the outside.
Understatement
"[ I’d seen on TV as the fifty-yard line became a blister
and all those padded men smeared to zero—how
quick the broadcast went to blackness and then the
blackness went to fuzz and then the fuzz went to an
ad for breakfast sausage, which I must say looked
quite delicious. ]"
Allusions
N/A
Imagery
Visual imagery of trees bent sideways in search for light:
"[They did not show the way trees had took to growing sideways, looking for the light, or hung with fat so black and bulged the limbs bent, weak.]"
Paradox
"I moved towards the door that held the outside..."
Parallelism
"[They did not show my face, so scratched I shouldn't mention.]
[They did not show the beach agleam with crawl]]"
Metonymy and Synecdoche
"...squeeze our faces into one another."
-parts of the body as a representation of the whole being
Personification
"The keyhole saw me writhing."
